


Mazes Aren't Always That Fun

by transreborn



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Gen, Mild Blood, depictions of violence, halloween fic, multiple character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 06:24:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12600256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transreborn/pseuds/transreborn
Summary: This was just an everyday job. Set up a maze with traps with their own abilities but....it soon goes south and fast.





	Mazes Aren't Always That Fun

**Author's Note:**

> This was a part of the khrsecretvalentine halloween event and was written for basketmaniac on tumblr
> 
> but also this is like...for halloween its a horror story based in the khr universe with the arcobaleno. there are descriptions of violence and blood and injury but hopefully not enough to make some people really uncomfortable if you can stand it. It's very loosely inspired by the saw franchise [ive never watched any i just know the plots] so like...people die.. but they arent like the traps in saw like the reverse bear trap or anything they're simple ones so don't worry about that.

This shouldn’t have happened. This was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong,  _ wrong _ . 

It was supposed to be simple he was going to join with the other Arcobaleno at a maze. They were going to map out the maze for the family and plant traps and do whatever they could to make it hazardous. None of them should have been gone for more than a few minutes. 

Reborn was the last to go down of course. It was rumoured that he was the strongest of the seven. It was almost unspoken that he could clear the maze himself. But….soon Skull wasn’t heard from anymore. He had stopped answering Mammon’s calls and Colonnello soon found out why.

He was chained, lying in a pool of vomit, blood, and saliva. His eyes moving rapidly underneath his eyelids assuring he was alive but his breathing was shallow. He was taking shallow  and fast breaths but then stop only to start again. His arms and legs shook and jerk as he laid there and soon his head fell back, leaving the various gashes obvious to everyone. He was bleeding out slowly but surely and there was nothing Colonnello could do. 

It was almost a relief to be able to say that Skull was dying. He wasn’t mafia. He was a stunt man. He knew the ropes of how to do shows and jump enormous gaps but not how to be stealthy or to be a good henchman. It was hard to watch the man stumble around this new world he wasn’t meant to be exposed to. It was a reason Reborn hated him so much. He was something to take care of and make sure he didn’t die so they could get paid and move on until the next job. Reborn is the number one hitman. He wouldn’t wait around for anyone  to do their job. 

He was the first one to celebrate with a sharp, “Fucking finally. It shouldn’t take us long now, we’re almost done.”

Colonnello made a sound but didn’t retaliate. It wasn’t the time for a fight like that. 

So he moved on. He walked away and down the hall to the next part. The maze was set up in different sections. The first one was where Skull was found. The second section was harder to get to but Colonello would help Lal finish what she was doing. She was military and brought the weapons to prove it. He had been sent to check on Skull.

“Make sure he’s not slacking off”, as she put it. He was happy to comply with his commanding officer and raced off. 

But as he climbed through the grate opening, he was hit with an intense stench of...unpleasantries . He wasn’t sure what. But the smell made him start to gag the closer he came and soon he was dizzy, swaying to the side and fighting to find where he was going. He had studied the path on a map with Lal so he wouldn’t get lost. But soon he was sprawled on the ground, the room going in and out of focus, his insides squirming. Faintly, he heard something crawling towards him and felt a hand on his chest. 

It must’ve been Lal. Relief flowed through him because she was better at chemical warfare, she had been in it before, but when he moved his head to focus on her, he realized that this was not Lal. This was not who he had come to love. 

It was grotesque with hoarse, clicking breaths.  Its breathing made him dizzier and he could feel his head swim even more. It was the same smell he had encountered entering the chamber but intensified. 

He felt the thing crawl onto him, weighing onto his hips and pushing his head back as he tried to struggle. His head bounced off the floor as he tried to strain against the body. Something slithered up his shirt. He felt nails digging into his flesh, dragging down his chest but stopping and restarting in the same path. His chest heaved in an effort to throw the thing off and soon he focused his eyes onto a lump of bloodstained clothes that looked like Lal’s. They were torn with…..with bones sticking out and there was blood….there was so much blood. 

He tried not to think about it. He couldn’t think about it now. All he had to do was get out of this thing’s grasp so he could escape to get help and warn people. This maze was something else. There was more to it then just the group setting traps. 

But the thing pulled away, sitting up and pinning his legs in a vise grip. It stabbed its hand into his chest repeatedly, different spots each time. It was hitting his abdomen, his chest, his ribs. He coughed, spitting at the thing, but it didn’t care. 

Someone was calling out to him but he couldn’t hear who. He couldn’t see. He wouldn’t hurt anymore if he just….closed his eyes for a second. 

Something tore into his chest and his eyes flew wide open in fear because god that one hurt so much more.

Colonnello was the second one down. He had struggled much more than the others. The gas in the air was his downfall though. There was no struggling against airborne belladonna. It was lovely to watch them all slowly, but surely, succumb to their environment. 

The Arcobaleno were a plague, they thought. Yes….it’d be better to have them down and out now. Before they caused too much havoc in the world. 

Who would be the next to go was the question. Reborn was more than powerful enough to escape if he was left with someone like Fon to fight with. Fon knew how to work  the entire group compatibly enough to accomplish anything. He was the calm  _ before  _ the storm. Yet...He wouldn't be the most fun to watch, Reborn would. He’d be the finale. 

Next would be Viper….They were a special case. They were greedy but with enough self preservation to leave the minute it was too risky. Greed was the only thing keeping them there as they were the one being paid the most. In secret of course. The rest of the team would object heavily to seeing Viper paid so much more. They wouldn’t work with each other until they’d gotten the same amount. It was an irritating cycle so it was an unspoken agreement that Viper be paid more but they never bragged about it. 

Viper was in the next spot now in the maze. They  were  in perfect position to be attacked. But...there was a time for everything. Viper wasn’t done setting up their traps. They were making their illusions with grandiose and a sense of style. Multiple spots where you would see bodies, dead and rotting, trying to claw at you. Blood thick in the air and all over the four walls. In other spots there was big emphasis on your own personal fears. If you were disgusted in the least by insects of all kinds, you’d see them coming out of the walls, straight at you, crawling up your leg. Soon you’d be buried under the immense weight of insects with no reprieve. Or maybe you were scared of water. It would break down the wall, flooding the cavern until you were barely able to breathe, clawing and gasping at the walls to stay above as more water pours in through a hole you can’t see. There was something for everybody that would be going through this maze. 

Viper was on the list. Disguised under another name so they’d implant their own fears into the room without knowing it. 

“This isn’t happening, this isn’t  _ right. _ ” Viper screamed at nothing.

There was blood….so much blood. They couldn’t breathe the air was so thick and soon they were on their knees, gagging onto the ground. 

Behind them, there was the clicking sound. A click-click-click with every breath it took in and rattling as it breathed out. It watched the pain Viper went through. They hated blood. It smelled terrible and disgusting. Yet they had made such an intense, mind-breaking illusion. 

Viper scraped towards the exit, their body straining and their fingernails breaking. But the door knob wouldn’t turn. No matter how much they yanked and slammed their shoulder into the door, it was no use. They slid down against the door, barely able to breathe anymore. 

That was when it struck. There’d be no struggling now. Viper was half dead and had nothing left in them. It pounced and ripped into their leg first. There was a scream and soon it was flying across the room, Viper formed illusions to fend it off. But there was nothing it feared .

It was an unfeeling thing that didn’t feel pain. Viper sucked in a breath and it hitched. Even after they had used a powerful illusion….one that was powerful enough to knock Reborn up a little...it didn’t even flinch. It lurched back from Viper kicking at it but started crawling forwards again. It scuttled, its mouth clicking harder than ever. 

It was excited. 

They were suffocating. It was whatever was in the air. It filled their lungs and made their head swim as they tried to regroup, just think of something they could do. 

It was on top of Viper now. It scuttled onto their chest, breathing into their neck as if it was surveying how close they were to dying. In almost no time, it had lashed out and bit into Viper’s neck, sucking and gurgling like a toddler. 

‘Hmm...Viper lasted longer…’, they thought. They stared at the monitor idly, scratching at their face. Verde should be next then. Keep up with the V names. 

He wasn’t in the maze though. Verde was providing support from outside. He was in his own little bubble, reading off the screen like lightning. He was trying to reconnect to Skull, Colonnello, Lal, and now Viper. All of them wouldn’t answer. There was only static. The only thing to be heard was the growling, clicking sound of the thing breathing that attacked them all. 

He was tapping away on his laptop, eyes glued to the code darting around on the screen. He was attempting to find any frequency that the devices were connected to, even the faintest radio transmission. 

Verde didn’t see it coming. He was too focused and he wasn’t a strong fighter in the least. Soon, he was caught by the torso, pinned by another person. 

“Who the-”, he tried to say . He kicked and squirmed but before long he was dead too. That silencer did the job as the person stood up. 

They would have to get their hands dirty if the plan were to work, it seemed. Verde was now the last shred of contact for Reborn and Fon. 

It was a pity because those two were going to be the most fun. They had met up though. After the others had failed to answer, they knew something was wrong and abandoned their jobs. There really should be a penalty for doing that...they’ll make sure there is for next time. 

“The exit changed with Viper’s fucking illusions.” Reborn growled. 

The two were crouched in a small alcove within the maze. Their backs together with the two watching either ends. 

“Verde is gone as well. We have no more support from outside.” Fon added. 

“The basic layout is the same. I left casings the path I took from the entrance but if we head back the same way….who knows what’ll be in store for us.” Reborn rubbed at his neck, staring straight ahead at the path. “If you can make it to the top of the walls, there might be a chance we can make our way through.”

“It’s better if that were a last resort. There could be a number of things waiting for whoever climbs to the top.”

Reborn grunted in agreement before he hauled himself to his feet. They were both exhausted from sprinting around the maze, trying to find out if there was an exit. The entire thing was rough clay. The only light coming from incandescent lights hanging from a chain. It only added to the atmosphere . It was dead silent in the maze now. Before, there had been distant talk between Lal and  ColonelloColonnello . You could hear them bickering miles away. When that disappeared, it was idle chatter with Verde about where to advance in the maze. Out of the blue, they had been assigned new parts of the maze to do and needed to be told how to get to them. 

It was dead silent now. You could hear their breaths echo around the room. 

They stomped towards another part of the maze. As far as they could tell, nobody had been there yet so it might be safe to use as a spot to regroup. Both of them had phones they could use to call in favours from other families. 

Reborn pulled his phone out, feeling his chest constricting more and more as he breathed. There wasn’t any service, as he thought. There was no way he could call authorities. He was wanted on three different ‘most wanted’ lists. 

There were numerous families he could call on but he wasn’t sure how close they were. They weren’t allowed to see where they were going. It wasn’t that odd as most mafia families make it a bit hard to find most of their bases. The easiest to call would be Vongola first. This was one of their allied families and if the family found out one of their military officers was down there enduring torture, it would prompt them to arrive quickly 

“How much you want to bet there’s wi-fi here.” Reborn joked.

“Any money I bet, I will win.” 

“Jokes on you, it’s free and open. Verde made my phone virus proof too so suck it.” 

He called Vongola the Ninth. There was no beating around the bush with Iemitsu. He needed his phone traced before they could keep going. Fon was on his phone, speaking in rapid fire mandarin to his boss, from the sound of it. 

The phone was answered within three rings and he was greeted by a cheery, “Hello there, Reborn!”

“Trace my phone.” He said snappishly, skipping pleasantries. “A job went bad. Find me and help me.”

“We’ll get right on that. Are all the arcobaleno there?”

“Fon and I are all that’s left.” 

There was a stunned moment of silence on the other end before Nono shifted in his chair. “I see”, he said. “Very well then, this is extremely serious. Please keep us updated on anything major.”

“I will, thank you.”

There was a clicking in the shadows that caught Fon’s attention. They had both been watching the entrance but Reborn didn’t seem bothered by it. He continued checking his phone. Fon squinted his eyes, trying to make out what it could be. 

It crawled along the floor, hissing and spitting with that same ticking sound. Every time it breathed in, it clicked like a card inside a bike wheel. Fon had no clue what it was. The light was too dim to make anything out. 

“What are you looking at”, Reborn demanded.

“Do you not see it?”

“The thing on the floor? It’s an illusion. Viper was making all kinds to go throughout the maze, not just their room.”

“It doesn’t….look like an illusion, Reborn. There’s something….about it. It’s alive.”

“I’ll believe it if it manages to hurt you.”

It was almost as if Reborn’s words were taken as a challenge. . It launched itself towards Fon, aiming for his throat. Fon dodged, sliding his foot back to steady his stance. When it lunged again, Fon went for pressure points, locking the joints in place. It wasn’t affected as it attempted to snap at Fon’s hands that were closest to its mouth. 

“A little help would be appreciated!” Fon said through clenched teeth. 

Reborn sighed before pulling out a handgun. Barely even glancing , he shot the thing right between its eyes. It fell back, growling and twitching before it rolled back onto its feet, the bullet wound had disappeared . Reborn narrowed his eyes, aiming again at the joints. It was barely fazed as it returned to its feet in no time. 

“How should we,” Reborn exclaimed, “approach this!”

“It’s like Skull’s regeneration. How did you get around it fighting him?”

“It was slower than this.”

“Could somebody have been able to recreate it?”

Reborn didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure. But if they could, they would have to experiment on humans.  It was an unwritten rule most mafia families not to do inhumane experimentation. This one definitely met the criteria. 

The two fended the thing off for what felt like hours. Every time said thing was hit, it would get right back up as if nothing had happened thirty seconds earlier . 

Fon was down and out. He had been for a while, was barely going by the time Reborn fell. The thing was inhuman. No matter what they did to lure it into a trap, it got right back up. They were close to the room Reborn set up. He had a duffle bag full of weapons and ammunition he had set up as traps with wires as well as motion sensors.

One of the traps misfired and hit Fon as he was trying to get out of the way so there was a clear shot but ended up hitting his leg. He had a high pain tolerance but as he staggered and fell. It became a perfect shot for the thing to attack Fon. It was clawing his torso before Reborn could shoot it. 

He let his guard down. He was trying to get that thing off of Fon, to give him some chance at survival . He shot it towards a motion sensor trap but his shot missed. The failed one in a million shot allowed the thing to come crashing into him, knocking him to the ground. 

He was being scratched at and bit, tossed around in his daze. When he was able to regain his breath, he slammed his forearm into the things mouth, forcing it off him. He used the leverage from his arm to bash the thing against the wall. Head wounds took the longest to regenerate. If it was destroyed he’d have some time to at least escape . He’d have to leave Fon to his own devices. He just hoped the thing wouldn’t pounce on him if he moved. The situation was do or die at this point. 

Faintly , he heard multiple sets of feet sprinting near the far west end of the maze. Somebody was there to help or harm. He didn’t know which one it was going to be. 

He stumbled away from the mess he made. Hoping the thing wouldn’t regenerate at all. For good measure, he stomped along its limbs and chest, buying whatever time he could get. He was going to bleed out at this rate. The maze was large but there were also the trap rooms that the seven had set up. 

He was trying his hardest to remain standing. He needed to put distance between that thing and himself so he could even have a chance at surviving. If his phone could be traced to where he was in the maze that was  even better. He wasn’t counting on any branch family to think like that though. So he needed to find a safer spot to stay hidden and hope they could find him. 

It wasn’t much use planning. Reborn fell in a crumpled heap, coughing and gagging, minutes later. He couldn’t breathe. His limbs felt like lead. His head swam as the light above him flickered in and out. The thing could very well have poison in its nails. All he could do was position his arm above his heart to prevent it from bleeding out.

He was fading fast. God, there was too much happening. What was that thing. It wasn’t an illusion. It felt different and he could tell when they were illusions. It had to be experimentation. There wasn’t any way around it. Those things …they weren’t natural. 

Dimly, he heard yelling and felt hands on his chest, legs, arms. He tried to say not to touch him but instead released a garbled, wet cough. 

There was something warm on his chest now. Though he could barely feel it. Everything else was far too cold. Nothing would make a difference. 


End file.
